The star chef, who we reached while he was foraging for ingredients in the Yucatán, shares some details about his much-anticipated pop-up in Tulum

For much of the past two years, chef René Redzepi and the rest of the team from Noma have been a long way from their Copenhagen home, taking their restaurant operation on the road, popping up first in Tokyo in 2015 and then last year in Sydney. His latest (and perhaps final) Noma pop-up is headed to Mexico in 2017, with a seven week run in Tulum from April 12 to May 28. Tickets cost $600 a head. In preparation for the project, Redzepi and his former sous chef Rosio Sanchez have spent months traveling throughout the country—from Mérida to Ensenada, from Oaxaca to Guadalajara, and everywhere in between—to find and taste that special chile, the best seafood, the infinite variations of mole. They’ve also recruited young Mexican chefs and sought inspiration in what the chef calls “one of the richest cuisines on the planet”. International Editor David Prior spoke to Redzepi who was (unsurprisingly, given Noma’s signature approach to food) foraging for ingredients in the Yucatán when he took the call.

You’ve said before that Mexico is a sleeping giant and the next place in the evolution of global gastronomy. Can you explain what that means?

I guess you have to look at this from the point of view of me being European. Americans are much more exposed to the greatness of Mexican food. In Europe, we’re not as aware of how great the food or how amazing the culture is. So I think we should discover how amazing it is to travel in this country and to experience the traditional food culture, and not only that, but also to see all the modern and new food from the young cooks.

Your hallmark at Noma is to serve wild and endemic food, and in Australia you travelled around the entire continent looking for obscure ingredients. Will you be doing the same with Mexico?

It is a different story here and it is an incredibly easy country to be excited about because in the marketplaces all the food is wild or comes straight from the farms. It’s quite easy to be inspired because of all the ingredients that are worth eating, or that can be eaten. Even bugs, insects, birds, larvae are readily available in the market and the Mexicans have incredibly detailed ways of cooking them.

Here, people still eat tortillas no matter who they are and what they have

Here, people still eat tortillas no matter who they are and what they have

What are the tastes you’ve been most inspired by around the country? What’s fascinated you so far?

So, so many things: The local Yucatán lime, which tastes like a mix between grapefruit and bergamot, is amazing; there is a strange fruit from Tabasco called ñame; a tropical fruit called mamey that will be in season in April and May; and also fresh cacao fruit. When it comes to seafood, I loved all of the clams that we found in Ensenada and octopus from the Yucatán, known as “Mayan Pulpo.”

What can we expect to see on the menu?

We won’t be cooking a traditional Mexican meal with a Scandinavian twist. We cannot cook as well as the people here who have been doing it forever, but we will be inspired from it. We went to a tiny town in Yucatán called Yaxunah and we had one of the very traditional dishes there called cochinita pibil [a slow-roasted pork marinated with citrus and spices and wrapped in a banana leaf] which is world famous. I’ve had it 1000 times before, but to go into this community that has been eating it for centuries—it was just so perfect and so delicious and better than 98 percent of the dishes I’ve had this year. We’re not going to try and fiddle with traditional dishes like that, but we’re going to look at the taco and the masa, those kind of dishes and try to do our own rendition of those.

Your former sous chef Rosio di Sanchez (who went on to open an acclaimed taqueria, Hija de Sanchez , in Copenhagen) has a Mexican background. How much did she inspire the location for your latest pop-up?

Rosio is one of the best cooks I’ve ever worked with. At Hija de Sanchez in Copenhagen I think she’s doing something that’s very good. For years, we had been joking about doing a pop-up in Mexico and I said that if we do one, we have to do it together. Learning from Rosio about what these ingredients mean to her, having grown up with this type of food, has been invaluable. With her, we have that extra chance of the food being really delicious because she’s so good at what she does.

Mexico’s diversity is amazing! Photo: Peter Brinch

Which other Mexican chefs inspire you?

One of my oldest friends, Roberto Solís, is a prominent chef in the Yucatán peninsula. His restaurant is called Nectar. Roberto trained with us many years ago and has been a friend ever since. He’s amazing and he’s the main reason why I ever came here. Also, Enrique Olvera (from Mexico City’s Pujol and New York’s Cosme) and I have been friends from way before either of us were famous. We’re good friends and we travel together and, of course, I talked to them about this project and whether we should do it and they were very encouraging.

How would you describe the traditional food culture around Mexico? What experiences stand out?

One thing that has been amazing on this journey is to see the diversity throughout Mexico. There are distinct differences from one region to another, which of course makes sense considering the vastness of this place, but it’s still incredible to experience it first-hand. Baja is laden with seafood, and then you go to Yucatán where it’s laden with pork and turkey. The thing about Mexico that’s also mind blowing is that you go to fancy dinners and meet important people and then you go to a small town and eat with people who have seemingly nothing and they’re all eating incredibly well. It’s very different to a place like Denmark. Here, people still eat tortillas no matter who they are and what they have. I think it’s a mark of a real cuisine and a democratic one. It makes Denmark look like a tiny little insect in comparison.

What do you suspect will be Noma’s biggest challenge in Mexico?

The biggest challenge, without a shadow of a doubt, will be organizing all the food to arrive on time each day, because here it’s all determined by the market. We have hired two local people who are going to be in charge of driving to two of the Yucatán markets to ensure we get the right ingredients each day.

Travelling together as a team gives us all an incredible sense of achievement.

Travelling together as a team gives us all an incredible sense of achievement.

These projects must be a huge challenge for you and your staff, with relocations around the world three times in almost as many years. With that in mind, what does success mean to you?

Success is one of those feelings that changes from project to project, but with the pop-ups the feeling of success is multiple because it’s about many things. Success is, of course, that our guests are happy. We have guests who have been dining at Noma for 13 years now and they follow us around the world. In terms of food, there’s nothing that Noma can teach Mexicans. They already have the traditions, stories, techniques and ingredients, but success would be doing something that will make the locals say, “Damn, that’s great.” Travelling together as a team gives us all an incredible sense of achievement. We’re bringing maybe ten or more families with us and that’s another really rewarding aspect—to see your children travel and experience another way of life. That’s a great success to see our families together. The way I always explain these pop-ups to people is that the thrill of it is like when you were young and you went for that journey for six months or a year and you come back with a changed view of the world, new opinions. We do these and we come back with a broader view of how to approach our life and our cooking. Coming back inspired and feeling ready to go into the cold north with a fresh bag of inspiration—that will be the ultimate success.

Noma Tokyo was at the top of a high-rise overlooking the lights of the city, and Noma Australia was on the edge of Sydney Harbor and decorated with native wild flowers and local ochre tones. How will you capture a sense of place at Noma Mexico that is true to you and your location?

The outdoor open-air restaurant will sit nestled between the jungle and the Caribbean Sea in Tulum. Exposed to the climate, it will be hot, steaming, and unpredictable. Billowing smoke and the orange glow of flames will define us, as all cooking will take place over the fire. I hope it will be wild like the Mexican landscape and a place to share our interpretation of the tastes from one of the most beautiful countries I know.

Noma Mexico runs from April 12 to May 28, 2017, at Carretera Tulum a Boca Paila, about 90 minutes’ drive from Cancún International Airport. Two dinner services will run Wednesday to Sunday. Bookings cost $600 a head including drinks.